posted
Mr. Card, through the library of reviews and articles on your website, I have heard you opine on every sf whose work first interested me in sf except one. I was wondering if you have ever read anything by William Gibson, and what you think of his work if you have?
posted
I know he said that he loved Neuromancer. And that he hated Neuromancer. Lemme see if I can find where it was.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
In reference to Gibson's work, I think he once said that he doesn't have any patience for characters whose lives aren't that great after they have destroyed their minds with drugs.
Posts: 751 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I didn't find the one I was thinking of, but I found some others. Here's (part of) one:
quote:It happens that the first work of William Gibson's that I read was Neuromancer, his first and, so far, most successful novel. It was compulsively readable, and it achieved what so few science fiction novels ever do: a detailed near-future that is different from the present reality and yet is connected to it. The style and plot were reminiscent of the hard-boiled detective tradition, which I enjoy, but it was the mastery of milieu that made Neuromancer such an extraordinary book.
But it left a sort of bitter aftertaste in my mouth. It appeared to me to be a hopeless, despairing vision, which seemed to honor suicide and self-destruction in a world where almost no one ever created anything. It was morally confusing to me; I wasn't sure if Gibson meant me to adopt the hip but cynical attitude of the hero, or stand ironically aside and reject the moral stance of all the characters. I finally came to the conclusion that Gibson was a writer I should admire, while rejecting his moral worldview.
--Future on Fire, from the introduction to Dogfight
posted
I can't for the life of me understand why people call Neuromancer a pessimistic novel.
SPOILER(?) . . . . . I take the theme of the novel to be: if man can create Hell on earth (the sprawl), he can just as easily create Heaven (Neuromancer) and/or a benevolent God (Wintermute). Case himself is a nihilistic man, but by the end he's helped to accomplish wonders. Part of what I took from the novel is that miracle-workers aren't always pure of intention and clear of conscience.
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was prety much my reaction to Neuromancer.
